2024 Lynx High Score Club: Round 4 - (Super Mario) Hockey and Loopz

[+jgkspsx]

   

 

2024

HSC rules

 

It's May Day and that means it's time for hockey! Okay, that doesn't make sense anywhere in the northern hemisphere, but go tell that to the National Hockey League, which is in the first round of the 2023/2024 playoffs. In honor of that questionable tournament, we'll be playing the Lynx's sole hockey game, blandly titled Hockey. In keeping with the spirit of the high score challenge, we will be playing the arcade-y shootout mode, but we'll have a couple bonus points for the rest of the game.

 

Quick digression: The original goal of Lawrence Siegel in commissioning the game in 1990 was to license NHL all-star "Super" Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Not because he cared about the talented Quebecois player, but because he wanted to call it "Super Mario Hockey" to, in his words, "f*** Nintendo in the ass." Charming. Once the lawyers told him it was not a battle Atari Corp could win, he lost interest in licensing Mr. Lemieux, but the game got made anyway. However, his dream was partially realized: Sega commissioned a Genesis/Mega Drive port of the game (which actually came out first), which was indeed called Mario Lemieux Hockey:

 

 

For our indie/homebrew game track, we'll be playing fantastic puzzler Loopz, created by Audiogenic and ported to Lynx by Hand Made Software. It was officially announced for release by @Songbird Productions in June 2004, so we'll be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the game's official release as well! This game is available on the Evercade, although unfortunately due to Atari licensing issues the cartridge is now out of print and has gotten pretty pricey. Not only is this a really fantastic, addictive game, but it also has some of the best music on Lynx.

 

Round Over: Saturday, June 1, 12:00am International Date Line West

 

Hockey

 

Manual / instructions / discussion: Manual (some of the controls are not obvious so make sure to read it!)

Settings - One player Shootout. Pick your team and your opponent.

 

HSC Record: Never played before!

Description: The goal is not to win - that's easy. (Well, not that easy.) Instead, the goal is to keep the deadlock alive as long as possible. Every time you score a goal, let the computer score a goal in response. Try to score and allow as many goals as possible to keep the drama alive! Each round both sides get five pucks. That's a maximum of ten goals per round. Your final score will be your goal count plus the computer's goal count. To reduce frustration, you don't have to win.

 

Medal Thresholds:

Platinum Medal: Score the most goals!

Gold Medal: 24 goals

Silver Medal: 14 goals

Bronze Medal: 9 goals

 

Bonus challenge 1: Win a regular game for 1 bonus ranking point!

Bonus challenge 2: Win a fight for 1 bonus ranking point!

Scores:

1. Your name here!

2. Your name here!

3. Your name here!

4. Your name here!

5. Your name here!

 

Loopz

 

Manual / instructions / discussion: GameFaqs faq on the NES version (which is mostly the same)

 

Buy physical: https://songbird-productions.com/product/loopz-lynx/

or play it on the Evercade Lynx Collection 1: https://evercade.co.uk/cartridges/atari-lynx-collection-1-cartridge/

For the purposes of inclusivity, the original B&C ComputerVisions PCB release is also fair game - any changes didn't affect the gameplay substantially.

 

Settings: Chain Loopz, game level 3. All other settings are up to you!

HSC Record: First year!

Description: Connect the loopz to score. The longer the loop, the better the score! You cannot place a tile with a connector touching the edge of the playfield. The Pac-Man or eraser thingie deletes pieces. You have to act fast - there's no time to lose! If you're struggling at speed 3, practice at lower difficulties first.

 

 

Medal Thresholds:

Platinum Medal: Score the most points!

Gold Medal: Score 20000 points!

Silver Medal: Score 10000 points!

Bronze Medal: Score 5000 points!

 

Scores:

1. Your name here!

2. Your name here!

3. Your name here!

4. Your name here!

5. Your name here!

 

Current season point standings:

Name	Total	Total Retail	Total Indie

 

Any corrections please post. Please put your score in text in your post please to make my life a little easier. Thanks for joining us

[+jgkspsx]

My calibration scores:

Have not won yet:

26 goals:

 

32253 in Loopz.

 

[agradeneu]

On 5/2/2024 at 7:19 AM, jgkspsx said:

My calibration scores:

 

 

32253 in Loopz.

 

That is a killer score, can't get higher than 8000 points!

[+jgkspsx]

You should start the game by making the biggest loop possible. Leave some room inside for smaller loops, but go wild.
 

You do get a bonus for clearing the playfield entirely, try to get that at least once early on.

 

The pieces appear in approximately this order:

 

- 1 block

- 1 corner

- 3 block

- 3 corner

- U block

- L block and reverse

- S block and reverse

- the eraser

- Z block and reverse

 

Later on you have to leave room for the big Z piece - that's the real tough one.

 

The most important thing later on is to not be greedy - the eraser is really random and you can get loads of them or none at all.

[+jgkspsx]

Here are my initial competition scores:

 

Loopz - 16140, 32 loopz

Played with the original prototype release to see if it felt different at all. It seems close enough to qualify.

 

Hockey - 11 goals

Won a fight... no I am not proud.

[Songbird]

And we're off!

 

Loopz - 14512, 41 loopz

[+jeremiahjt]

On 5/2/2024 at 12:19 AM, jgkspsx said:

26 goals:

Penalty! Playing with team no longer in existence, score disqualified.

[+jgkspsx]

Je me souviens, like they say in Quebec (about the Nordiques). Honestly I was just pandering to @Songbird, haha.

[agradeneu]

With a little help I finally Managed a decent score😇

[Songbird]

Nice! Did you play with one paw or two?

 

[+jgkspsx]

Hockey - 17 goals, silver!

 

 

For this challenge you want a team with a good goalie and great shot stats, and you want to play against a team with a bad goalie but good offense. I have found playing as Minnesota against Chicago to be best on average. Toronto's scorer misses the puck way too much for comfort.

 

If you haven't gotten into this one yet, the controls are simple. Just press on the d-pad in the direction you want to either hit or catch/block the puck with the right timing. I have found for some reason that shooting down works as well as any other direction. Mostly I have scored goals down and mid-right, with the occasional high goal and the odd one down and to the left.

 

Also, if you are going to lose anyway, try to let them rack up as many goals as you can!

[JagChris]

This sounds odd but I'll give it a try.

 

Say what you will about Ringler, I think they knew video game hockey. 

[MichaG]

The opposing goalkeeper is better than my shooter... 6 goals.

Loopz, very nice game, but just 4,128 points. Room for improvement.